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Greg Curnoe's London

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Bike Tour: Saturday, July 23, 1:00pm

1:00pm, Community Bike Tour, Bring your bike to Watson St. Park, at Wellington Rd and Front St 3:00pm, Barbecue, Belvedere Park, on Victor St west of Wortley Rd Winnipeg artist Paul Butler would like to invite you to join in a community bicycle tour of Greg Curnoe’s London. Butler has worked with Mike Barry of Mariposa Cycle to rebuild Curnoe’s favourite bicycle Close The 49th Parallel ETC. Using the bike as a research vehicle, Butler will ride through London with members of the local community, stopping at sites significant to Curnoe and asking participants to share stories around his life and legacy.

The tour, led by Butler and special guest artist Jason McLean, is an effort to engage in a discussion about the role of artists in their communities today, inspiring the current generation through the spirit and drive of Curnoe’s generation. The bike tour will be followed by a barbecue at Belvedere Park, with food provided by Julia Kennedy. Since 1998 Paul Butler has hosted the internationally renowned Collage Party, a traveling experimental studio engaged in community building among a range of participants in museums, galleries, schools and non-profit art centres, and has also directed The Other Gallery, a nomadic commercial gallery focused on overlooked artists’ practices. Through these experimental projects Butler has come to realize that Curnoe’s initiatives have served as an important precedent to his own works. Through Greg Curnoe’s London Butler seeks to research Curnoe’s practice and ongoing influence on artists and artist-run culture across Canada.

An artist on a yellow speed bike leads a group of cyclists around downtown London. He brings his bike to a stop and the group gathers around as he begins to tell a story.

The artist is Winnipeg native Paul Butler, perhaps best known for his traveling experimental Collage Parties. Butler organized a community bike tour in London to explore the life of Greg Curnoe and begin filming a short documentary about him (in participation with LondonFuse).